Latest news with #TimKaine
Wall Street Journal
a day ago
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Politicians Don't Understand Young Workers
Regarding 'Democrats Attack Gig-Worker Benefits' (Review & Outlook, July 23): Expanding benefits to more people isn't partisan—it's common sense. A poll conducted last year found that a majority of Americans, including 71% of Democrats, supported companies like DoorDash providing benefits for independent workers and keeping independent contractor status. Now members of Congress from both parties can deliver just that. Sen. Bill Cassidy's (R., La.) legislation is an important step toward making it easier to expand portable benefits. The bill generated thoughtful discussion at a recent Senate hearing, not only from Republicans on the committee but also from Democrats such as Sens. Tim Kaine (D., Va.), John Hickenlooper (D., Colo.), Andy Kim (D., N.J.) and Lisa Blunt Rochester (D., Del.).
Wall Street Journal
5 days ago
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
A Risky Plan for Social Security
The Social Security system's trustees in late June issued a warning that the system's trust fund will be depleted by 2033. A few weeks later, Sens. Bill Cassidy (R., La.) and Tim Kaine (D., Va.) proposed the first bipartisan Social Security reform plan in decades. The legislation, the senators say, would establish a 'sovereign wealth fund' to help fill Social Security's $25 trillion funding gap without raising taxes or reducing benefits. The Cassidy-Kaine plan may get a warm reception from the Trump administration, which also favors a sovereign wealth fund and pledges never to cut Social Security benefits. But if the rescue plan sounds too good to be true, that's because it is.
South China Morning Post
18-07-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Destruction of hundreds of tonnes of expired foreign food aid a symbol of US cuts
The United States' destruction of a warehouse worth of emergency food that had spoiled has drawn outrage, but lawmakers and aid workers say it is only one effect of President Donald Trump's abrupt slashing of foreign assistance. The Senate early Thursday approved nearly US$9 billion in cuts to foreign aid as well as public broadcasting, formalising a radical overhaul of spending that Trump first imposed with strokes of his pen on taking office nearly six months ago. US officials confirmed that nearly 500 tonnes of high-nutrition biscuits, meant to keep alive malnourished children in Afghanistan and Pakistan, were incinerated after they passed their expiration date in a warehouse in Dubai. Lawmakers of the rival Democratic Party said they had warned about the expiring food since March. Senator Tim Kaine said that the inaction in feeding children 'really exposes the soul' of the Trump administration. Packets of USAID 'ready to use' food. File photo: AP Michael Rigas, the deputy secretary of state for management, acknowledged to Kaine that blame lay with the shuttering of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which was merged into the State Department after drastic cuts.
Arab News
17-07-2025
- Business
- Arab News
Slashed US aid showing impact, as Congress codifies cuts
WASHINGTON: The United States' destruction of a warehouse worth of emergency food that had spoiled has drawn outrage, but lawmakers and aid workers say it is only one effect of President Donald Trump's abrupt slashing of foreign assistance. The Senate early Thursday approved nearly $9 billion in cuts to foreign aid as well as public broadcasting, formalizing a radical overhaul of spending that Trump first imposed with strokes of his pen on taking office nearly six months ago. US officials confirmed that nearly 500 tons of high-nutrition biscuits, meant to keep alive malnourished children in Afghanistan and Pakistan, were incinerated after they passed their expiration date in a warehouse in Dubai. Lawmakers of the rival Democratic Party said they had warned about the food in March. Senator Tim Kaine said that the inaction in feeding children 'really exposes the soul' of the Trump administration. Michael Rigas, the deputy secretary of state for management, acknowledged to Kaine that blame lay with the shuttering of the US Agency for International Development , which was merged into the State Department after drastic cuts. 'I think that this was just a casualty of the shutdown of USAID,' Rigas said. The Atlantic magazine, which first reported the episode, said that the United States bought the biscuits near the end of Biden administration for around $800,000 and that the Trump administration's burning of the food was costing taxpayers another $130,000. For aid workers, the biscuit debacle was just one example of how drastic and sudden cuts have aggravated the impact of the aid shutdown. Kate Phillips-Barrasso, vice president for global policy and advocacy at Mercy Corps, said that large infrastructure projects were shut down immediately, without regard to how to finish them. 'This really was yanking the rug out, or turning the the spigot off, overnight,' she said. She pointed to the termination of a USAID-backed Mercy Corps project to improve water and sanitation in the turbulent east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Work began in 2020 and was scheduled to end in September 2027. 'Infrastructure projects are not things where 75 percent is ok. It's either done or it's not,' she said. The Republican-led Senate narrowly approved the package, which needs a final green light from the House of Representatives, that, in the words of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, will rescind funding for '$9 billion worth of crap.' The bill includes ending all $437 million the United States would have given to several UN bodies including the children's agency UNICEF and the UN Development Programme. It also pulls $2.5 billion from development assistance. Under pressure from moderate Republicans, the package backs off from ending PEPFAR, the anti-HIV/AIDS initiative credited with saving 25 million lives since it was launched by former president George W. Bush more than two decades ago. Republicans and the Trump-launched Department of Government Efficiency, initially led by tycoon Elon Musk, have highlighted spending by USAID on issues that are controversial in the United States, saying it does not serve US interests. House Speaker Mike Johnson said that the Republicans were getting rid of 'egregious abuses.' 'We can't fund transgender operas in Peru with US taxpayer dollars,' Johnson told reporters, an apparent reference to a US grant under the Biden administration for the staging of an opera in Colombia that featured a transgender protagonist. The aid cuts come a week after the State Department laid off more than 1,300 employees after Secretary of State Marco Rubio ended or merged several offices, including those on climate change, refugees and human rights. Rubio called it a 'very deliberate step to reorganize the State Department to be more efficient and more focused.' Senate Democrats issued a scathing report that accused the Trump administration of ceding global leadership to China, which has been increasing spending on diplomacy and disseminating its worldview. The rescissions vote 'will be met with cheers in Beijing, which is already celebrating America's retreat from the world under President Trump,' said Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
CNN
17-07-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Giving The Middle Finger To MAGA Over Epstein? - The Arena with Kasie Hunt - Podcast on CNN Podcasts
Giving The Middle Finger To MAGA Over Epstein? The Arena with Kasie Hunt 47 mins The panel talks about the continued fallout over the Jeffrey Epstein controversy at the White House, President Donald Trump not ruling out firing the Federal Reserve Chairman, and the Obamas' new comments about their marriage. Senator Tim Kaine joins Kasie Hunt to discuss.
